


your face traced in starlight

by avislightwing



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Everyone Is Gay, F/F, Falling In Love, First Meetings, Fluff, Gen, Love at First Sight, Meet-Cute, Spongebob Voice: The Gang's All Here, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, WHY is that a legit tag, there is literally NO angst here NONE AT ALL, vore jokes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-06
Updated: 2018-05-15
Packaged: 2019-03-14 13:34:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,992
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13591128
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/avislightwing/pseuds/avislightwing
Summary: The last thing Lucretia's looking for is romance of any kind - she's here for her degree. What she wasn't counting on is Lup - but then, who can plan for a force of nature?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> back on my BS with a longfic I have no outline or update schedule for. oops. I'm going to regret this.

“I don’t know about this, Merle.” Lucretia, jean-clad, sleep-deprived, clutching her journal to her chest, cast a very anxious look at her overenthusiastic, vertically challenged best friend.

“Ah, c’mon!” he said. “It’s not even gonna be a nude model, I promise, I asked! It’ll be fun! You deserve it after the week you’ve had.”

Lucretia grimaced, tugging at the cinch cord of her scarlet hoodie. She’d been studying non-stop for her Middle Eastern history midterm, which she had summarily failed. She’d also lost her second-best pen somewhere between her apartment and the bus stop. Not to mention that she’d bailed on Merle three times in the past couple weeks – twice for dance parties and once (she did not regret this) for a “nature walk.”

Besides, he was right. She did deserve to enjoy herself a little.

“Only if you buy me coffee afterwards,” she decided.

“Lucy, ya gotta sleep sometime,” Merle scolded her, but grinned. “All right, all right. Coffee afterwards.”

“Not a date,” Lucretia added automatically. When they’d first met, Merle had hit on her mercilessly for exactly five minutes before their mutual friend Magnus had informed him, scandalized, that she was a _lesbian, Merle, jeez, you’re makin’ me look bad here!_ Merle, unfazed, had nodded, accepted this one hundred percent in stride, and promptly told her that he had a boyfriend anyways. He’d then asked if he could buy her a coffee sometime. _Not a date,_ she’d blurted out, in the context of the interaction. He’d laughed – that deep, genuine belly laugh that she heard all the time now – and had said, _‘Course not, Lucy – can I call you Lucy? – ya just look like ya need it!_

(She had. She had needed it badly.)

“And you’re sure there’s not going to be any nakedness,” Lucretia confirmed.

“Yeah, I know ya better than that,” Merle said, pushing open the door to the art building. “Just art an’ stuff.”

“Have you been to one of these before?”

“Oh, yeah, loads of times, Magnus practically lives in this place as much as in the gym,” Merle said. They walked down a paint-smelling hallway towards a door that had been propped open, through which they could hear a chorus of overlapping voices.

Merle strode (well, waddled) into the room first, greeting the small group of people with his usual gruff charm. Lucretia, behind him, peeked inside. She’d been half-hoping Magnus would be there, but he wasn’t, which meant that Merle was the only one there she knew. Might as well get it over with. She slipped into the room, hoping not to draw attention, but she crushed that dream by immediately stumbling into a metal stool, knocking it over with a painful clatter.

The entire room looked towards her.

As she clutched her journal to her with one hand and righted the stool with the other, Merle broke the brief silence and began introducing her to the everyone, which didn’t work very well as he evidently only knew one other person there himself. Lucretia gave a quick wave to the room in general, then hastily installed herself at the nearest easel, grabbing the provided sketch paper and sticks of charcoal on the way. Everyone else also scrambled to find their seats as one – a woman who looks a little older, probably a grad student, with dusky skin and dark curly hair very lightly sprinkled with silver – cleared her throat.

“So,” she said, “welcome to drawing club. Good to see all of you, as well as the newcomers!” She waved to Lucretia and one other person across the room. “We’re gonna get started with some quick poses – two minutes each – and then move on to five, ten, twenty, and thirty minute ones progressively. Don’t feel the need to stay the whole time if you don’t want to!” She smiled encouragingly around at the group, then took her own seat. She was replaced by the model, who’d been lounging in a chair in the back, but who now walked to the center of the room, switched the lamps on, and struck a pose.

Lucretia almost dropped her pencil.

The model was, hands-down, the most gorgeous woman she’d ever seen. She was dressed in clothes that were fairly easy to draw – tan slacks that stopped halfway down her calves and a simple black tank top. Her arms were lean, defined muscles visible in her brown skin. Her bleach-blonde undercut spilled messy curls over the right side of her head. She had a face that looked like it wanted to smile, even though she was keeping her expression neutral for the sake of easier drawing.

Before Lucretia realized she’d been staring, the first two minutes was up, and the woman changed her pose. With a start, she hastily directed her gaze at her paper, focusing on capturing the woman’s posture. She was here for _art_ , for heaven’s sake. She would not let being entirely too gay get in the way of that.

By the time the session let out an hour and a half later, Lucretia was at her wit’s end. She managed to follow Merle out of the building before collapsing against a wall with her hand over her heart.

“You okay there, Lucy?” Merle asked in consternation.

“You _asshole_ ,” Lucretia gasped. “Why didn’t you warn me? What happened to gay/lesbian solidarity?”

“First of all, I’m pan,” Merle told her. “Second of all, whaddya mean?”

“The model!”

“Who, Lup?”

“You _know_ her?” This was getting more surreal all the time.

“Sure, she’s Taako’s sister,” Merle said with a shrug.

“Taako? As in, Magnus’s friend, the guy who’s renting the furnace room in your basement?”

“That’s the one. They’re twins, I think. She and Maggie get along great.” Merle chuckled. “Almost blew up my furnace week before last.”

“Merle? Hey, Merle?” Lucretia took her friend’s shoulders in a death grip and looked him in the eye.

“Yeah?”

“We’re going to go to The Davy Lamp, and you’re going to buy me a triple espresso, and you’re going to tell me everything you know about Lup. Got it?”

“Geez, Lucy, it’s that bad?”

Lucretia released Merle. “She measured about a twelve point four on my God I’m Gay scale, Merle. _Twelve point four._ ” Even Maureen, the astronomy professor Lucretia had had a crush on for the past two years, only measured an eleven.

“Okay, okay, coffee,” Merle said comfortingly, patting the highest part of Lucretia he could reach (her elbow). “Ya know, I think she winked at you as you were runnin’ out of the room, there.”

“ _Merle_.”

“Not helpful?”

Lucretia smiled in spite of herself. “You’re terrible. I’m going bribe Magnus to spray all your plants with salad dressing.” She held up a hand as he opened his mouth. “And if you make a vore joke right now, our friendship is cancelled.”

“Noted.”


	2. Chapter 2

Lucretia had a very rigid morning routine. Wake up at six. Shower and dry her hair. Get dressed (slacks or jeans, blouse, hoodie). Eat breakfast (black coffee, poached egg on oat-nut toast, banana). Grab her bookbag and journal and make sure not to trip over Johann’s violin case or Carey’s rollerblades on her way out the door.

But on Saturdays, she slept in.

Lucretia awoke with a start to Killian pounding on her bedroom door. “Lucretia! It’s noon o’clock! Avi and I are heading to the gym, and Carey’s hanging with Magnus. Don’t bug Johann, he’s in a Mood. Also, it’s raining cats and dogs, so, like, probably it’s a good day for staying inside. See ya!”

Lucretia groaned and flung an arm over her face. Johann being in a Mood meant he’d be staring into their aquarium for hours, humming to himself, before breaking into the practice rooms in the musical building at midnight, writing feverishly for hours, and being returned by a very grumpy member of the campus police. Luckily, this only happened once every few weeks, but it was enough to get on everyone’s nerves.

An hour and a half later, Lucretia had her cloud of hair pulled back into some semblance of a ponytail, her hoodie on over her pajamas, and was sitting at the table stirring a bowl of Lucky Charms and reading one of the romance novels she’d gotten five-dollars-for-a-box at the local library’s booksale. She’d been working feverishly for weeks – she deserved some relaxation, and maybe more than a little daydreaming about Lup.

Suddenly, jolting out of her romantic fantasies, someone pounded on the door, rang the doorbell, then started pounding on the door again. Lucretia heard Johann’s wail of horror from the floor above as his concentration was interrupted, so she scrambled to her feet, slid in sock feet over to the door, unlocked it, and wrenched it open.

Her mouth dropped open. There, drenched and grinning sheepishly, was a girl who could only be Lup. Admittedly, she was wearing a very different outfit than she had been at the drawing club – a red leather jacket and a somewhat battered pair of black jeans, as well as a band t-shirt and a number of pins, including one proclaiming ASK ME ABOUT MY PRONOUNS – and her hair was dark and flat from the rain, but that was her. The freckled face, mismatched eyes, and smile were unmistakable.

“Hi,” she said in a breathless voice. It was a lilting kind of voice that played up and down a scale of pitches like Johann warming up on the violin. “My car broke down, and – oh, shit! You’re the girl from the drawing class.”

“Uh,” Lucretia said. “Yeah. Yeah, that’s me?”

“Lup,” Lup said, sticking a hand out. “What’s your name, chickadee?”

 _Oh, shit. Ohhhh, shit._ Had Lucretia somehow summoned Lup here with her wandering, gay thoughts? She jerked a hand up and shook Lup’s. “Lucretia,” she managed.

“Pleasure. Uh, you think I could come in for a few? I gotta call up my shithead brother because he has a couple shithead friends who’re really good with cars,” Lup said. “I was going to call form my car, but my phone died a little, maybe.”

“Yeah! Yeah, yeah, sorry,” Lucretia stammered, holding the door open so Lup could step inside. “Do you want a cup of tea or something? I don’t drink it, but my roommates have a bunch in the cabinet. Oh – your jacket…”

“This thing?” Lup shrugged out of the red leather and brushed the water off. “Nah, it’s fake, cha’ girl’s too broke for real leather. You wouldn’t _believe_ the shit people give to thrift stores in this town, though, god _damn_. Got this for seven bucks. But yeah, I’d love that tea. And a phone, if you have one handy.”

“Here.” Lucretia unlocked her cell phone and handed it to Lup after making sure to clear all the apps. “What kind of tea?”

“Mmmmmgreen,” Lup said absently, tapping a number into the phone. “Thanks.”

Lucretia filled the electric kettle and switched it off, listening to Lup calling Taako an increasingly creative series of names in a fond, yet irritated, voice, as she waited for him to pick up. Eventually, she let out a long, drawn-out sigh. “He isn’t picking up his phone. Doofus. He probably left it in his room again. D’you know anyone who’s good with cars?”

“There’s my friend Magnus,” Lucretia offered. “I think you know him?”

Lup nodded. “Yeah, Maggie’s a good idea,” she agreed. Then, “Oh, damn, but he volunteers at the dog shelter on Saturdays. Damn, damn, damn. Looks like I’m stuck here for a while. You don’t mind, do you, Lucy?”

“N-no, not at all,” Lucretia stammered, pouring hot water over a teabag in her least questionable mug – the one that was average size, and not Lucretia-studying-for-finals size, and didn’t have chips on the edge – and placed it in front of Lup. “You’re always welcome here at the, um, Bureau of Outstanding Balance. Friends of friends and all that.”

Lup cackled as she processed the name. “Did you name your house? Did you, fuck, did you name your house _boob?_ ”

Lucretia couldn’t decide whether she was mortified or delighted that she’d given that away. “Four out of the five people who live here like women. We couldn’t help it.”

“Waitwaitwait, I gotta know, the one who doesn’t isn’t you, is it?” Lup said, wrapping her hands around the mug of tea. “Let me back that up, that was a word salad right there. Do you like girls?”

“Y-yes,” Lucretia stammered, blinking under the intent, brown-and-hazel stare leveled at her. “Johann’s the odd one out, not me. He’s gay.”

“Oh, good,” Lup said, leaning back in her chair, tipping it onto two legs. “’Cause can I say, babe, you’re _real_ fucking cute, and you seemed really flustered at the drawing class the other day, and I thought I was gonna have to ask Merle for your number.”

“That would’ve been a disaster,” Lucretia managed. “He’s… I love Merle, but…”

“Yeah, he’s terrible,” Lup said cheerily, taking a sip of her tea. “Ten to one he would’ve given me a plant to give to you and you can’t trust Merle’s plants, you know?”

“I definitely know.” Lucretia took a deep breath, refilled her coffee cup, and sat down at the table. “So, you’re Taako’s sister?”

“Twin sister, yeah,” Lup said, tipping back even further and putting her feet up on the table. Lucretia seriously considered objecting, but Avi’d found the table in a dumpster, so it wasn’t like Lup’s feet would hurt it. “He’s a doofus, and, like, my best friend, I love him. We were going to live together again, always had, but then he found Merle’s place and I found this wack-ass attic that I’m renting, so _that_ happened. I’m maybe ninety percent sure it’s haunted, and my landlord is probably a demon or something, but it’s hella cheap. There’s a bunch of black curtains on the wall, and he won’t let me take them down. I’ll show you sometime. Damn, this is good tea. Where’d your roommates get it?”

“Um,” Lucretia said.

“I’m a junior, double-major in chem and philosophy and minoring in music,” Lup continued. Hearing Lup talk, Lucretia thought, was like standing in the presence of an incandescent lightbulb, or a miniature sun. Even while covered in goosebumps and soaking wet, she was glowing, filling the room with warmth. “Maggie and I met in a woodworking class when I nearly cut my fingers off and he showed me how to use all the equipment safely, it’s wild that you know both him and Merle and we haven’t met yet. Anyways, what’s your jam? You gotta be an artist since you came to the drawing class, right? Well, Merle goes and he isn’t an artist except for making junky crafts that nobody but Davenport likes.”

“I mean, I’m majoring in history and journalism,” Lucretia said. “Art’s really… more of a hobby? It makes me happy, I guess.”

Lup smiled, and Lucretia had thought she’d been smiling before, but now she realized that it had just been Lup’s normal, resting face. Lup’s _smile_ was something else entirely: radiant and bright and sweet, and it made you (it made Lucretia) think maybe no matter how many bad things existed in the world, as long as Lup was still smiling, everything would be okay. “That’s awesome, babe. I feel that way about music. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I love chem, but music is straight-up _baller_. Love that shit. You listen to much music?”

“Johann’s a music major, so more than I’d like,” Lucretia admitted. “He’s always playing really sad stuff as inspiration, or playing his mixtapes?”

“Mmm. But when you choose, what do you listen to?” Lup asked over the top of her mug.

“Indie,” Lucretia said in a small voice. “And techno rock.”

Lup choked on a laugh through a mouthful of tea. “Holy shit, for real? Not fuckin’… classical, or something?”

“Also rap, sometimes,” Lucretia said with a sheepish grin.

“I think I’m going to like you,” Lup said after a moment of relative silence during which she let her chair fall back onto all four legs with a soft thump. “Also, I’d really like to take you on a date. D’you like Mexican food? I know a taco truck off of Fifth and Wattson that makes the best barbacoa north of the border, and then we could eat on that bench by the pond or something. Thoughts?”

“I – uh –” Lucretia took a deep, steadying breath, and the opportunity to pinch herself, to make sure she wasn’t dreaming. “Yes. I’d like that a lot.”

“Lemme have that phone so I can put my number in it, then.” Lup made grabby hands at Lucretia until she handed her cell over again. Just as Lup was about to hand it back, number added, it started buzzing, and she answered it on instinct. “H’lo? Taako! You ass! I’ve been stranded for _hours_ , languishing.” She winked at Lucretia, who hastily took a gulp of her coffee. “You know if Hurley or Sloane are around? My car’s kaput. Okay, yeah. I’ll text you the address and you can text her. My phone’s dead, that’s why. Yeah, yeah, we’re still on for dinner, obviously. Can’t let Mavis and Mookie eat whatever the fuck Merle’d make them, probably popcorn. Love you too. Bye!” She hung up, typed something into the phone (presumably the promised text), and tossed the phone back to Lucretia, who fumbled and almost dropped it. “I gotta go, turns out, but send me a text so I have your number, ‘kay, chickadee? And then we can figure out the when of that date.” She stood up, leaned over, and pecked Lucretia on the forehead. “Thanks for the tea and company. _And_ the date. See you soon!”

Lucretia couldn’t even draw a breath until the door had closed behind Lup. But as soon as she could, she made a call of her own.

“Merle? You’re never going to believe what just happened.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so a few things in case you're interested
> 
> 1) the "I think I'm going to like you" line is what my dad said when he met my mom for the first time, the dork
> 
> 2) if a girl called me "chickadee" affectionately I would 100% die
> 
> 3) you better believe that lup's landlord is Mr. Garfield
> 
> EDIT: 4) lup and taako are both latinx and jewish and you can pry that from my cold dead hands

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on tumblr at [@birdiethebibliophile](birdiethebibliophile.tumblr.com)!


End file.
